


Candy canes and Sugar plums

by rockymountainvixen



Category: Tales of Arcadia (Cartoons)
Genre: And dishes out some karma when needed, Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Family Feels, Gen, Humor, Jim gets confused with Krampus and runs with it, Krampus - Freeform, Mistaken Identity, Multi, Sibling Love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-24
Updated: 2019-12-25
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:20:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21947206
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rockymountainvixen/pseuds/rockymountainvixen
Summary: Christmas themed one shots and drabbles, to be added to every holiday season.1. Christmas card-Notenrique celebrates his first Christmas as part of a family.2. Gruss vom Krampus-One night on patrol Jim experiences a case of mistaken identity.
Relationships: Claire Nuñez & NotEnrique
Comments: 17
Kudos: 64





	1. Christmas Card

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notenrique celebrates his first Christmas as part of a family.

“Are you eating the scented pinecones?”

Notenrique scooped out a pinecone and popped it into his mouth “No,” he said while spraying flecks of wood.

Javier raised an eyebrow but said nothing about this blatant lie “Well hurry up, you still need to get changed,”

“Already took care of it,” he snapped the elastic waistband of his diaper “I changed meself half an hour ago,”

“No no,” Javier shook his head “Changed into this,” he held up a miniature suit; white shirt, red tie, and a matching black vest and pants.

Notenrique narrowed his eyes, hand still buried up to the wrist in the decorative wicker bowl “Not happening,”

“Are you guys still not ready?” Claire walked into the room, tailing Ophelia who carried Enrique, dressed in a suit identical to the one Javier was holding, gurgling happily.

“Almost, Ricky just needs to get changed into his outfit,”

Notenrique frowned, he still wasn’t sure how he felt about the nickname they had started calling him, but one thing was for damn sure, he was _not_ wearing that. 

“Nuh uh,” he stood up straight and folded his arms, just so they knew how serious he was “Ain’t no way you’re forcing me into that monkey suit,”

Ophelia frowned “But the photographer will be here in half an hour,”

“Like I said, _not_ going to happen,”

Rather than protest further, Ophelia exchanged a sly look with Javier, and then slowly set Enrique down on the easy chair.

Notenrique’s ears flicked back. His self preservation instincts, the very thing that had kept him alive in the depths of the darklands, were going off like crazy.

A metallic click sounded from the far side of the room. His head snapped in the direction of the sound, too late he saw that Claire had shut and locked the door.

It was a setup.

Notenrique jumped onto the couch just in time to avoid being tackled by Javier, swiveling his head from side to side. The windows were all latched shut, Claire was still standing guard by the door.

No use, all the exits had been sealed.

Unfortunately during his lapse in attention Ophelia managed to grab his scruff and put him in a headlock 

Notenrique squirmed in her grasp “OY! LEGGO OF ME SCRUFF!”

Ophelia ignored him and tightened her grip “I’ve got him, get the suit!”

Javier swept in, vest and tie at the ready “I’m on it, hold his legs!”

“HELP! GENEVA CONVENTION! GENEVA CONVENTION!”

* * *

Notenrique sat on the couch, still in his suit, albeit with tie undone and vest unbuttoned, head buried in a sack of scented pinecones. He had already eaten his first two bags and was well into the third. They had given him one right after the photography session, but with a little pouting he had been able to squeeze two more out of them. 

Claire walked up to him, beaming and holding a stack of small stack of cards. He lifted his head out of the bag and swallowed a mouthful of cinnamon scented wood chips.

“What are you smiling about big eyes?”

She held one of the cards out to him, grinning from ear to ear “The pictures turned out great, take a look,”

Curious, Notenrique glanced down at the glossy paper. The card was dominated by a large picture of the five of them, Claire sat on a stool in the middle while Ophelia and Javier flanked her. Her father holding a giggling Enrique while her mother had Notenrique balanced on her hip. 

Notenrique leaned in closer to get a better look at his photo. His smile was a little forced, and from the angle of the photo you couldn’t see the very firm grip Ophelia had on his scruff while the picture was being taken. Despite that he didn’t look half bad, pretty slick even, maybe he could learn to live with the monkey suit.

But it was the words printed beneath the photo that set his gut churning in an unfamiliar but not unpleasant way. 

_‘Merry Christmas from the Nuñez family’_

_‘Javier, Enrique, Claire, Ophelia, and Notenrique “Ricky” Nuñez’_

“So what do you think?” Claire piped up.

Notenrique blinked back the unexpected wetness in his eyes “Could use more socks, but it'll do,”

“Are you crying?”

“No!” he shouted, a bit louder than he intended.

Claire rolled her eyes “Right,” she ruffled his exposed scruff “Merry Christmas hermanito,”

Notenrique playfully batted her hand away “Merry Christmas yourself sis,”


	2. Gruss vom Krampus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> One night on patrol Jim experiences a case of mistaken identity.

Jim vaulted the fence in a single leap and landed in a crouch in a snowbank, holding as still as he could. Sirens flared briefly before fading into the distance. He let out a sigh of relief, he should really be more careful when hunting down goblins in a suburb, but it looked like he was in the clear.

A soft whimper came from behind him.

Crap, spoke too soon.

Jim froze, the eclipse armor was good as a stealth suit, but only provided he didn’t start jumping around in it. That was pretty hard to miss. Holding the rest of his body perfectly still, Jim slowly turned his head in the direction of the sound.

Two-- no three, kids were huddled against the side of the house, practically shaking in their snow boots, eyes wide with fear.

Jim’s heart sank in a way that had become far too familiar in the past six months. There were obvious cosmetic differences between humans and trolls, and to the unfamiliar the latter could appear...intimidating, and the black-red glow of the eclipse armor didn’t help. 

He tried to swallow the unexpected tightness in his throat. These were just kids, the biggest one of them couldn’t be more than eight years old, and Jim was a seven foot tall, horned intruder in their backyard. There was no reason for him to be upset, it was perfectly natural for them to--

“....please don’t take us away Mr. Krampus…”

Wait, what?

Careful to stay in a crouched position, not wanting to frighten them any more than he already had. Jim turned to face them.

“Hi there,” he hoped his smile came off as friendly rather than bearing his fangs “What was that you just called me?”

They were silent for a few beats before a girl with dark curly hair took a step forward, it looked like she was the oldest of the bunch “You’re Krampus...aren’t you?”

Krampus? What was-- oh yeah, Krampus was the Christmas demon. He’d heard about that before, some kind of reverse Santa, punishing bad kids instead of rewarding good ones. 

Jim let out a sigh of relief. An easy mistake for a kid to make, with the horns and the black armor and all, at least the secret world of trolls wasn’t exposed.

He could work with this.

“Yep,” he sat back on a snow drift, stretching his legs out in front of him “I’m Krampus,”

The kids let out a chorus of wails, whimpering as they pressed themselves even harder against the wall of the house. 

Jim blinked. Oh, that’s right, Krampus  _ punished _ kids...woops.

“But I’m not here to punish you guys!” he said hurriedly.

“You’re-- you’re not?” one boy sniffled.

“Nope, I’m just in the neighborhood, taking care of some...other naughty people, not any of you,”

“But…” the littlest one peeked past the others, a girl of about four or five, massive afro crushed under her glittery, pink hat “I ate the cookies that were for my grandma,”

“I lied to my mom,”

“I cheated on a test at school,”

“I took my best friend’s necklace without asking,”

Jim sat hunched in the snow while the elementary age group rattled off their ‘sins’ to him. How was he going to fix this? He really wished he was better with kids. 

What would Strickler say to them? Scratch that, what would his mom say?

“Ok...look,” he twisted his hands together “You know why doing those things was bad, right?”

They nodded.

“And,” he gestured toward the afro headed girl that had first confessed “You said sorry to your grandma right?”

She nodded “Yeah, and I helped make more cookies for her,”

Jim looked back towards the other two “And you all said sorry and tried to fix things to, right?”

They all nodded. 

“That’s what’s important, everyone makes mistakes and does bad things, but it’s ok as long as you apologize, help fix things, and try to do better next time,”

The kids whispered among themselves, slowly detaching from the brick wall of the house. 

“So, wait…” the bespeckled boy spoke up “If you don’t punish people for doing that stuff, what do you punish them for?”

Jim’s face went blank, he had  _ not _ thought that far ahead into his ‘Krampus’ persona.

“You see I….” one of his feet tapped nervously against the ground “Stop people that are naughty...from....hurting other people,”

Seeing as how the kids weren’t screaming, Jim kept going “And if someone’s doing things that would hurt people and doesn’t stop or say sorry or try to fix things, that’s when I come in to stop them,”

Pink hat afro girl scurried up to him, eyes wide and curious “Like who?”

“Well...uh…” Jim struggled to come up with something to tell them, improv was  _ not _ his strong suit “There was once this really bad guy named Gunmar...”

That was how Jim found himself retelling a  _ heavily _ edited version of the battle of eternal night to three kids while sitting in a snowbank at nine o clock at night. By the end the kids, whose names he learned were Marisol, Liam, and Veronica, were practically sitting on top of him, Veronica’s pink hat dangling from one of his horns. 

“...and so with my friends helping me we were able to lock Morgana up in Shadow jail,”

“Whoa…” Liam whispered, eyes wide with awe, expressions mirrored by Marisol and Veronica.

“Yep,” Jim said while getting up to his feet “That’s how it happened,” he handed the sparkly pink hat back to Veronica, who wasted no time in shoving her afro into it.

Jim was glad he’d been able to calm them down, but now that he’d thought about it for a while, something was bugging him.

“So what are you guys all doing outside so late at night?”

Marisol sheepishly pointed at a large, but crumbly looking mound of snow “We were trying to build a wall so we could keep you out,” she flushed and looked down at her snow boots “Sorry,”

All Jim could do was stare at the sad looking pile of snow that couldn’t even stop a racoon, much less a troll like him. Maybe things had changed since he was a little kid, but as far as Jim remembered, building snow walls to keep out demons was  _ not _ a typical holiday activity. 

“Why were you doing that?”

“Emily told us it would work,”

Jim raised an eyebrow at that “Emily?”

“Our babysitter,” Liam held out a small box “She told us about you and showed us the movie,”

Curious, Jim reached out and plucked up the offered box. It was a DVD case titled  _ ‘A Christmas Horror Story’ _ showing a staff wielding Santa Claus facing off against a tall chain-swinging, horned figure that-- ok the movie actually looked pretty cool, he was definitely going to have to show it to Toby later. But it was rated R, these kids were way too young for that. 

“So Emily, your babysitter, showed you guys this movie and then told you to go outside and build a snow wall to keep Kr-- me out?”

The trio nodded.

Jim frowned “No one’s going to come attack you guys, not me or anyone else, Emily shouldn’t have told you that, and it was really...not nice of her to scare you like this,”

Marisol’s eyes widened “Are you going to...punish her?”

“No,” Jim stepped around the side of the house, looking for the breaker box “I’m just going to have a talk with her,”

* * *

“Great job getting rid of the rugrats,”

Emily giggled and plopped down on the couch next to Jacob. Scaring the twerps with that movie and sending them outside to build a wall to keep ‘Krampus’ out was the best idea she’d ever had. She’d barely been able to keep from laughing the whole time. Now they were free to make out on the couch while the munchkins were out digging the snow for the rest of the night.

Leaning back, she cuddled even closer to Jacob “So where does your mom think you are?”

He smirked and wrapped an arm around her “In the dorms working on my thesis, that should get me out of any holiday dinners this year,”

Emily grinned “Perfect,” she licked her lips and moved in for a kiss, Jacob puckered up and prepared to meet her.

Suddenly all the lights shut off, plunging the room into darkness and causing them to freeze in their pre kiss. 

“Is this a blackout?” Jacob said while propping them both up into a sitting position.

A quick glance out the window revealed that the sparkling red and green Christmas lights of the houses on either side of them were still lit.

“I don’t think so, none of the other houses are dark,”

Squirming uncomfortably, Emily pushed herself up off the couch “C’mon, there should be some flashlights in the kitchen,”

Jacob stood and followed her as she headed over to the next room. She reached out and was about to turn the knob when she heard a loud clang coming from within. 

Her heart skipped a beat. She whipped back towards Jacob “Did you hear that?”

His wide eyes and pale face told her that he most certainly had. Not saying anything, Jacob slowly reached into the duffle bag behind the couch and pulled out two baseball bats, wood and aluminum. He gripped the wooden one firmly and soundlessly passed the aluminum one to her. 

Emily gave him a quick nod of gratitude before gently grasping the knob and easing the door open. 

“Marisol? Liam? That you in there?”

No reply.

Pulse pounding in her ears, Emily slowly stepped into the kitchen, Jacob on her heels, scanning the room for axe wielding maniacs. 

The room appeared empty, save for the table and chairs swathed in shadows.

No serial killers in sight.

Emily was about to sigh in relief when the door slammed shut behind them. Causing them both to jump and let out a shriek.

“I hear you’ve been talking about me,” a gravelly voice snarled.

An enormous figure stood by the door. It was too dark to see him clearly, but glowing red lines running down his arms and legs pulsed through the shadows and let them know exactly how  _ massive _ he was. Emily squinted, what was wrong with his he--

“You want to know what’s  _ really _ naughty?” the figure stalked towards them, moving slowly but with deliberate purpose “Purposefully scaring kids that you’re supposed to be taking care of,” 

Emily felt the blood drain from her face as the figure came into view. He looked different than in the movie and the pictures she’d seen online, but there was no mistaking those horns. 

Krampus. 

The  _ real  _ Krampus.

Instinct took over and she swung the bat at his temple with all her might. 

He caught the bat in his hand without so much as flinching.

A shudder coursed through her as Emily started trembling all over. From the corner of her eye she could see Jacob doing much of the same.

Oh god, she told the kids about Krampus just to scare them and now the real Krampus was here and she and Jacob were going to die here like dumb teenagers in a bad slasher film and--

Krampus snorted and released the bat. It slipped from Emily’s limp grip and fell to the floor with a metallic clang.

“I’m going to let you off with a warning this time, but if you pull something like this again,” he let out a low growl “I won’t be as understanding. Got it?”

Somehow Emily still had enough of her faculties left intact to nod slowly. 

“Good,” Krampus gave them a smile that would have been threatening enough even without exposing his sharp teeth “You all enjoy the rest of your night,”

With that Krampus turned and left, shutting the kitchen door behind him. Emily and Jacob didn’t move an inch the entire time, fear rooting them in place. After a few minutes the lights flicked back on.

Less than ten seconds later Jacob dropped his bat and started bawling. Emily sank to the floor, feeling as hot and limp as an overcooked noodle. The raw terror slowly draining away formed its own kind of numbness, like warm, lumpy oatmeal slogging its way through her veins.

She was faintly aware of Jacob fumbling for his phone while scampering in the direction of the front door.

He punched at the screen with his thumbs and raised it to his ear just before heading out the door “H-- Hello, Mom? I-- I-- I’m sorry, I’m not working on my thesis-- I lied...” 

His words trailed off in a sob as the door shut behind him, leaving Emily alone in the house. Kneeling on the kitchen floor, staring at the four, perfect finger shaped dents in the aluminum bat. 

* * *

Jim flipped the master switch of the breaker box back into place, brightening the dark house.

It looked like things were pretty well taken care of here. But he really had to get back and regroup with the others.

He turned towards the three kids “So remember guys, anytime you think someone is trying to scare you with a story like that, tell your parents. They’ll know for sure if it’s true or not,”

Jim paused, feeling like he should add onto that “And if you see anymore...magic...creatures like me, be careful, not all of us are nice, ok?”

“Uh huh,” 

“Yep,”

“Yes,”

“Good,” he headed back towards the fence “I need to take off now so--”

He was caught off guard by Veronica running up to him and hugging him around the legs. Effectively holding him hostage despite their vast differences in size and strength “Thanks for visiting Mr. Krampus,”

Touched and more than a little flustered, Jim attempted to return the gesture by giving her a soft pat on the back “Happy to help, you guys take care now,”

Veronica released his legs, allowing Jim to jump to the top of the fence, swinging a leg over the top, getting ready to leave.

Marisol, Liam, and Veronica waved goodbye from the snow filled backyard.

“Bye, Merry Christmas,” Marisol shouted out to him, parroted by Liam and Veronica seconds later.

“Merry Christmas,” Jim called back with a wave, with that he turned and leapt off the fence, taking off into the dark, snowy night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A Christmas Horror story is a real movie and one I highly recommend, but definitely not for kids.
> 
> The scene at the end was based on what happened to me when I helped out with the Christmas party in my mom's kindergarten class. I spent the whole time decorating cookies with them and as I was about to leave, one of the kids ran up and hugged me. It definitely caught me off guard, but I was pretty touched.


End file.
